Opinion category, Page 50
J. Byron Fleck: Pitt’s $246 million bet against its students, employees
By July 1, the University of Pittsburgh will have made a choice: fund up to a quarter-billion-dollar commitment to pay its professional football and men’s basketball players — or protect its students, families and employees from financial ruin. The money? $246 million over 10 years, taken directly from student tuition,...
Dwight Boddorf: Reinventing Tarentum, a small town with a big vision
The odds haven’t been in our favor, and for towns like Tarentum, they rarely are. At its peak, Tarentum was home to over 11,000 residents and was built on industry, tight-knit neighborhoods and a strong tax base. Today, we’re a town of just over 4,200. We’ve lost more than half...
Letter to the editor: All hail Trump the king
Evidently, the Democrats, liberals and others who follow their thinking have tired of calling President Trump a Nazi, an oligarch and a fascist. So they came up with a clever new idea. Now Trump is a “king.” Personally, I am not offended by this latest political distraction. Our president has...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s bill will harm veterans
Last weekend, President Trump threw an extravagant military parade on his birthday, and taxpayers are footing the $45 million bill. While it may seem like Trump is honoring the military, I know, as a former Army soldier, what we really need is to end the Republican-backed assault on programs veterans...
Editorial: Pets should have legal protections from being treated like trash
Families don’t always look the same. Sometimes they are small and nuclear. Sometimes they are blended from remarriage. Sometimes they are extended with grandparents or grandchildren. And for many people, families include animals. According to Forbes, 66% of American households include pets. That’s almost 87 million families. Most pets are...
Letter to the editor: Reschenthaler not representing
It’s best for me to think of Rep. Guy Reschenthaler’s weekend newsletters as attempts at humor. Witness his June 9 email. I want him to take me to the Westmoreland County grocery store where eggs are $2.52 so I can purchase there. He claims to be a great supporter of...
S.E. Cupp: Loyalty to Donald Trump overrides basic decency
In 50 years, when we talk about this era of American politics, it will be truly impossible to capture the chaos, exhaustion, darkness and insanity of Donald Trump’s presidencies. There won’t be adequate words to describe how much changed in such a short period of time, thanks to Trump’s utter...
Letter to the editor: We already defeated America’s only king
What a great celebration Saturday in our nation’s capital for the United States Army’s 250th anniversary. George Washington would be very proud. Yes, we did defeat a king — it was King George III of England. America’s first and only king. And then there was whatever was going on that...
Letter to the editor: Defending our right to protest
Our right to protest is not up for debate. It is protected by the First Amendment — because protest is how everyday people make their voices heard when the system fails them. Let’s be clear: Peaceful protest is real, and it matters. It’s not chaos. It’s not a threat. It’s...
Lori Falce: Lee’s words about Minnesota victims must be remembered
On Saturday, when Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were gunned down, they were not the only casualties. And no, I don’t just mean that there were other people killed in gun violence that day. I’m not even...
Laurels & lances: Careers & cash
Laurel: To forging new paths. High school students spend a lot of time thinking about the future. For some, that’s about preparing for college, applying to schools and choosing a major. The number of students learning new skills to enter the job market when they graduate, however, is growing. According...
Letter to the editor: Politicians should account for their costs
As a follow-up to my letter “Wasteful spending in Westmoreland” (March 9, TribLive), I would like to bring to light wasteful spending in our 14th District by our representative. I previously asked what our local elected officials are doing to save taxpayer dollars. It is quite apparent wasteful spending is...
Paul Kengor: The silliness of ‘No Kings’
The first rule of launching a campaign is clever sloganeering. One might also call this marketing or “branding.” Many groups over the years have been very effective in that regard, from Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign to the LGBTQ movement’s “Marriage Equality” slogan to the enormously effective Black Lives...
Jonah Goldberg: Maybe the latest Democratic disarray means they’re coming to their senses
Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, and Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, resigned from their positions on the Democratic National Committee. This could be great news. I don’t really know, because the actual reasons remain murky. “While...
William M. Cotter: Pushing public notices to government websites is a bad move
Legislation in the Pennsylvania Senate risks allowing local governments to operate in the shadows, leaving taxpayers unaware of decisions affecting their pocketbooks, their communities and their quality of life. State Senate Bill 194, sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams/Franklin, would allow school districts and municipal and county governments the option...
Jasmine Thompson: To be seen, heard and loved — the power of Black educators
During sessions of “The Girls Room,” which I established during my first teaching job as a safe space for high school Black girls to be seen and celebrated, we read novels like “The Skin I’m In” by Sharon Flake, talked about our goals, walked into womanhood together and discussed the...
Michel Lee Garrett: Gender-affirming care saved my life. Anti-trans policies would end it.
My life pre-transition was defined by deep depression. A profound emptiness, wrongness and passive suicidality suffused every day. I saw therapists. I saw psychiatrists. I took anti-depressants. I still hated myself. I still wanted to die. Only in my late 20s, when I finally opened up to my therapist and...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Can Amazon survive Pa.’s red tape?
Pennsylvania just caught the attention of the world’s most powerful company. Amazon recently announced it will invest at least $20 billion to build multiple high-tech cloud computing and AI innovation campuses across the commonwealth. The projects are expected to create 1,250 high-paying jobs — likely just the beginning of a...
Christopher Nicholas: Are Pa. partisans flipping sides on Fetterman?
Are the party positions on always-newsy senior U.S. Sen. John Fetterman flipping here in Pennsylvania? Fetterman continues to dominate the state’s “political attention” economy, as he has for a long time. Earlier this month in Boston, he and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick participated in a debate sponsored by the Edward...
Letter to the editor: Protests don’t look peaceful
Are throwing concrete pieces, frozen water bottles and high-grade firecrackers peaceful protests? Yes, the protesters, whom I think were paid, are at it again, déjà vu from 2020. How can the liberal woke media call this peaceful? Are they blind? Of course not; they reject having our country return to...
Letter to the editor: Who benefits from abortion carnage?
Each person on Earth has physical characteristics which are unique to him or her. No two people are alike, and any human being that is killed before being born can never be replaced. At fertilization, the second the male sperm fertilizes the woman’s egg there is a spark. First discovered...
Editorial: Don’t let government hide in the shadows
Government should never happen in the dark. We elect our leaders to represent our best interests, to craft laws that protect our communities and to spend our money wisely. All of that has to happen in the sunshine of the public eye for it to be trustworthy. And yet, too...
Letter to the editor: Sick leave expansion is anti-business
The expansion of Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act is both short-sighted and anti- business (“Pittsburgh City Council expands paid sick leave requirements for businesses,” June 11, TribLive). The decision to enforce the costlier ordinance came with very little, if any, input from the business community. Not only will small businesses be...
Kate Harper and Conor Lamb: Four-letter word missing from the One Big Beautiful Bill: JOBS
In the hazy fog of hyperpartisan Washington, it’s easy to miss what is directly in front of you. That has never been truer than in the current debate over the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the U.S. House and now awaits action in the Senate. The “OBBB” is a...
Cal Thomas: Hit ’em hard and again
After Israel took out at least two of Iran’s top scientists behind the development of nuclear weapons (and promised to kill more), my high school fight song came to mind. At football games after a touchdown we sang, “Hit ’em hard and hit ’em again. Show ’em now that we’re...
